When the cat's away, the mice will play

My wife is enjoying herself on a much needed vacation, while I stay at the home front to keep an eye on the dogs, and fill the freezer back up with fish.

On my drive to Delacroix this morning, Dogdad passed me up while I was pulled over, and he was kind enough to stop and ask me if everything was alright.  Everything was, but that is the comradery that I enjoy so much about kayak fishing.  He offered me an invite to one of his honey holes, but I had to decline as I'm trying to learn new parts of Delacroix so I can be the best teammate I can be for AWFC.  

After talking to Jumpmaster0664 (sorry, I'm horrible with names) at Sweetwater marina, we went our separate ways.  He was in search of trout, while I was looking for bass and/or redfish.  I paddled for about 45 min before I even put a line in the water, and even then, I had another 15 minutes before I really started fishing.  I found a canal with ponds coming off of it on Google earth, so I thought it would be deep, but for most of the day I was only in 2 feet of water or less.

As I wind my way through the canal, it opened up into a large pond, and I could see several tails breaking the surface.  Water visibility was extremely low, but the fact that the redfish were waving a flag as if they needed a refill at Poncho's made finding them easy.  I wasn't really planning on keeping any, so the first 3 or 4 were all released before I decided to start keeping them.   

Around 11 I left the main canal and ponds, heading deeper into the broken marsh, where I was able to pick up 3 reds right at the 17" mark.  After a small throwback red, I saw something busting up some bait down wind of me, so I knew it was only a matter of time before I was in casting distance.  1st cast aimed at him, was just right.  A short battle later, 27.5".  I stop to take a Massey's Fish Pic, and release him.  

The wind was starting to pick up pretty bad so I figured I'd hit one last spot that was on the plan, and then I'd head home.  While letting the wind drift me to where I needed to go, I slowly drift over a pretty decent size red.  The first cast was too far ahead of him and I didn't have enough room between him and the kayak, so I had to recast, this time he took the Seein' spots inline spinner.  He starting pulling me in the direction I was originally going which would mean less fishing area, so I threw down the stakeout pole, and fought the battle anchored.  When I finally get him to the boat, hes bigger than the last bull red, so I take out the token, take a pic and let him go.  

All of the reds had leaches on them.  The bite was never phenomenal, but it was higher than normal, and with the water warming up, so should the bite.  

I missed several large reds that would pull off 40+ feet of line on the initial run, then turn and spit the hook.  It was rather frustrating because I know that they were likely to be over 30".

 The 7" tapered fillet knife by Bubba Blade made short work of the fish today.

Temps: 63-73
Wind: 0-10 MPH
Skies: Clear
Water clarity: 6 inches tops
Water temps: 58-68
Seein' spots with black/chart